The creation of a short and handy Mosin Nagant carbine to complement the standard M891 was prompted by the Russo-Japanese War. Lots of Russian troops with roles other than infantry - machine gun and artillery crews in particular - were unnecessarily burdened with full length rifles, and the Model 1907 carbine was intended to fix that. Produced at the Izhevsk Arsenal, the model was adopted in 1907 and made until 1914. A total of about 344,000 were originally made (not that the serial numbers reset at 1 for each year of production), but very few survive today.

Mechanically, the receiver and butt of the 1907 is identical to the M1891. The carbine differs in its handguard, sights, and 20 inch (508mm) long barrel.

There were two patterns of the Model 1907, as the rear sight changed in 1908 to match the then-new Spitzer bullet adopted by the Russian military. The first pattern is graduated up to 1900 arshins and the second pattern (like this one) goes to 2000 arshins, thanks to the increased velocity of the new ammunition. In addition, a recoil bolt was added to the guns around 1910 to help handle the increased recoil of that new ammunition (some earlier guns were retrofitted with those recoil bolts as well).

Ultimately, the 1907 was judged to have very intense flash and recoil, and not considered a particularly successful design. With the outbreak of World War One, production was stopped in favor of making more of the M1891 rifles instead. Of course, carbines like the 1907 would return with the M38 and M44 a few decades later...

Many thanks to the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels for access to this very rare piece! Check them out here:
https://www.klm-mra.be/D7t/